Card captor Shinigami
by Naoko1
Summary: This is mostly focused on Duo. The pilots, and a few of the Original CCS characters appear in quite frequently. If you don't know much about the show, (CCS) Don't worry, most of the stuff will be explained in the story. Please R&R Thank you!!
1. Default Chapter

Heh, I'm attempting to write another story. And like most of my stories, it's a x-over. CCS and Gundam Wing. For all of you out there who don't know jack about CCS don't worry. The only characters from the show, will be the Guardians, Eriol, Touya, Yukito, and Sakura. And the history behind the characters will be revealed later on as the story progresses. I hope you like this story. I will try to update often as I can, but with my computer acting up lately, I dunno if that's going to happen or not.

Also, Duo is going to be our main character here. Sorry. But there is at least one character in this fic, where his role isn't quite determined. Also another thing, This story contains Shounen ai. If you don't like boy/boy relationships, leave now and don't flame. They will be laughed at.

If you see some grammatical mistakes, please tell me in the reviews. My grammar isn't the greatest right now. And I have a cold so Don't expect miracles. 

Well on with the fic.

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'thought'

"Speech"

~*~*~*~*~ -scene change, or character switch.

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flashback

Duo stared at the control panel in front of him. All he had to do was disable the security cameras, so the others could get in. Heero's voice rang in through the earpiece he was wearing. 

" 01 to 02. What is your status?"

"In main laboratory, readying explosives." He said, adjusting the microphone that rested in front of his mouth. 

"Have you disabled the security systems yet?" Heero impatiently asked.

"I haven't got that far, I'm trying to rig these explosives. I will in a second." He said, wiring two bombs together. And placing a detonator on it, resting the trigger in his pocket.

He walked over to the control panel again, and started pressing buttons in a rapid repeating pattern. Suddenly all of the monitors went blank.

"02 to 01, explosives ready, security offline, all clear." Duo said, waiting for his comerade to return the call.

"Roger that. Let's rondevouz at the main hallway. 01 out." Heero said, in his usual monotone.

Duo sighed, pulling the mic down, and opening the door. The others wouldn't have that hard of a time retrieving the rest of the information from the computers room. He'd disabled most of the soldiers. And they could take care of the rest without a problem.

Several minutes later, there was an explosion from the other side of the building. Meaning they had gotten the discs and had detonated the building. He ran out to the hallway nearby, and waited for the others, who were coming around the corner at a full out sprint. 

"Let's blow this hotdog stand!' Duo yelled, pressing the detonator that was the trigger to several rounds of explosives.

They dived out of the building and hit the deck just as the building exploded into one large ball of flames. The heat washed over the five of them, and disappeared as the fireball dissapated. They got up and ran for the jeep Trowa had stolen from a car dealership several weeks before. And sped off into the night.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Meanwhile as they sped off, the transparent form of a small, pretty, green eyed woman materialized in the midst of the carnage.

"I just hope they can manage what they're in for...especially the boy with the braid, and his unruly haired friend." She muttered, looking in awe at the destruction the five boys had managed to create.

Reaching out, her hand slipped through a piece of rubble.

Another form materialized. This time, of a dark haired male with glasses, and wise eyes. "Sakura... I know your worried, but I'm sure they can handle it." 

"I know that. . . But I'm worried the most about the one who is host to Yue. He acts so. . . robotic. Like a machine. I know Yue is asleep, so he can't be controlling his actions. What will happen when he finds out the truth about his identity?"

"I can't tell. Where's the damn pre-cognition when you need it." The other form chuckled.

The woman, Sakura, laughed.

"Your right in your reason to worry. He seems very conflicted in his emotions inwardly, although it isn't apparent to his comerades, all they see is the mask he wears."

"Eriol, do you think we should help them. I mean, come back as someone that might be close to them?"

"Would that be wise?" He asked, tilting an eyebrow in question.

"I dunno. But if we do it, you won't be playing tricks on them like you did to me." She warned. 

Eriol laughed sheepishly."I guess it was a bit cruel to do that." He admitted.

"Another concern I have is about the Braided one. The candidate."

"Yes?" Eriol asked.

"Well, he seems to harbour some feelings for that robotic comerade of his."

"What? Are you insisting that we play matchmaker?" 

She grinned slyly."Maybe. . . Playing matchmaker is something I'm quite good at." She said, rubbing her hands together in a _ Mr.Burns-is-planning-something-sinister _manner.

"Now the problem is, do we go back, or remain as ghosts?" Eriol asked.

"It's easier to monitor them this way, but the one with the brown hair, and the unibang covering half his face, is the only one of them who has the ability to see us on a regular basis. He has the same powers my brother did. His friend, the blonde, has an Empathetic ability. He isn't the type to keep secrets either. The braided one...I think his name is Duo, he has the pre-cognitive ability. " Sakura said.

"Aren't you just full of information." Eriol teased.

"Uh huh. It comes with being several hundred years old. Not to mention I can read people like an open book." Sakura said.

"Well, it looks like were going to stay the way we are until we are needed. Looks like we get to play guardian angels to these five." Eriol said, adjusting the pair of transparent glasses he wore on his nose.

"Hai. I just hope they can handle what's coming..." Sakura said, as the two of them faded into non-existence once again.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Duo flopped onto the couch. It was boring in this safe house. What struck him even more, is that it was an old house in the middle of suburbia. Why Quatre picked it, he'd never know. It was one of the few remaining houses that were over 100 years old. It had been built back in the 1900's A.D. making it almost three hundred years old. Even it's furniture was in very good condition. And it was the original furniture. It hadn't been inhabited in ages. Close to about 250 years.

The others had gone out to deliver the report to Dr.J who was stationed up in Yokohama, to the north, and wouldn't be back for several hours.

"Since I'm here, I might as well explore this creaky old house. At least it won't take me three weeks like it does for Quatre's mansions." Duo muttered. Getting off the couch, he headed for the kitchen, which was fully stocked, and there was a pot of simmering curry stew on the stove, that Trowa had turned on before he'd left. The table was a mess. Quatre had been sitting there, trying to figure out some new stragtegics for the next mission.

"He sure knows what he's doing." Duo said, picking up a couple of papers with writing on them. He sat them back down, and set to exploring the rest of the house. He headed for the stairs, that led from the living room to the second floor. He walked into the first room, which had been designated to himself. Which was empty, spare a bed, and a picture of two teenagers that sat behind the two white vases with a white card resting on them that sat on the dresser in the room. For some reason, the room resonated with a strange presence. Something that made Duo's hair stand on end. Something else was in here, besides himself.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Two invisible specters sat on the bed, watching the braided teen with interest. Having a conversation no one but themselves could hear.

"Do you think he can sense us here, To-ya?" The first of the specters said, his pale, greyish hair glinting in the sunlight.

The other, a dark haired man, who in life, and also now was his lover gave him a calculating look."Probably. It wouldn't surprise me. I don't think he can see us, but he knows were here. It's been ages since anyone has lived here. Because of the house being haunted. I guess these five don't believe in either magic, or the supernatural. Since they're using it for a safe house of all things."

"Aa. I'm worried though. About that one boy. The one that's sharing the room with him." 

"Nani? Why do you think that Yukito?" His companion replied.

"Because... I don't know. He seems so... detached. I also sense Yue's presence sleeping within him. But I doubt that's the reason behind the cold demeanour. Something happened to him. I also sense, that unlike me, Yue slept within this child for years. He looks to be about fifteen, or sixteen. Meaning that, something happened when he was younger. He has no emotion, or if he does, he masks it well. Yue couldn't mask his emotions that well either. So he's been trained to be emotionless. He has to be."

"I agree. There's a lot more to the two of them than what meets the eye. I can tell just by looking at the braided one, that he's had a rough time of it. Just the way he carries himself, it's like someone stuck a huge weight on his shoulders. Like he's lost something of importance." The darker haired one added.

"You can definitely tell that the five of them haven't had the greatest lives, for being as young as they are. Touya, I know I sound like a mother hen when I say this, but I worry. We've seen so much chaos over the centuries past, and these five are caught up in all these battles. No one should have to fight like this."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Duo looked at the small white vases that stood on the dresser. He ventured over to see why they'd been sat there. Then he realized, they didn't belong to any of them. He also noticed, that they looked kind of big to be vases. He looked down at the card in front of them, which had writing scrawled across it in chicken scratch type handwriting, that severly reminded himself of his own.

"Yukito and Touya Kinomoto. May you be together in death as you were in life."

Then he realized. They were cremation urns. His surprise quickly turned into curiosity.

"I wonder why they kept the funeral urns in the house all these years. And why they didn't scatter the ashes." He muttered, furrowing his eyebrows in concentration. He opened the first vase, which had the words "snow rabbit" or Yukito Tsukishiro, etched in beautiful looking Kanji across the rim. He took the lid off, to find ashes in the urn. Which he'd been expecting. He touched some of the silt with his fingers, and immediately felt a flashback coming on. Except. . . it didn't belong to him.

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"Iya! Abunai yo!" A female voice yelled. A little girl, who couldn't be any older than ten years old wearing roller blades was heading straight for him. There wasn't enough time for him to get out of the way, so she ran into him and plowed him over.

She got up, and started muttering apologies to the boy. "Gomen! Gomen nasai! Daijobu desu ka?" She hurriedly asked.

The taller boy who'd been yelling at her, who he presumed to be her older brother, walked over.

"I told you to be careful on those things Kaiju! Are you ok?" He asked, holding a hand out to the boy who was now sitting up, trying to dust off his blazer.

"Aa. Daijobu. It wasn't her fault. I wasn't looking where I was going." He replied taking the taller boy's hand.

"Are you new? I don't recognize you." he said.

"Hai. I just moved in down the street."

"I see your going to Seijou. I'll give you a lift. If you walk, you'll be late for classes." The taller boy said, picking up his bookbag.

"Arigato." 

"What is your name?" The little girl asked shyly.

"Anata wa Tsukishiro Yukito desu."

"Watashi wa Kinomoto Sakura desu." She said. Yukito stuck his hand out in a handshake guesture. She shook his hand, and he said."It's a pleasure meeting you Sakura-chan."

"I'm sorry about running you over. Touya-baka is right, I do need to watch what I'm doing."

"It's alright. No harm done." Yukito said laughing. Touya dragged his bike over.

"Hop on. Unless you want to be late for classes." the boy said, guesturing to the second seat on the bike. Yukito slung his bag over his shoulder, and climbed on.

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The scene shifted to a later date suddenly. And Duo realized, he was looking through the eyes of this persons past. Unable to do anything but watch he just let it keep coming.

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This time, the scene was a shrine. The full moon hung overhead, and the sounds of a festival of sorts could be heard nearby.

"So. What should we do first Yuki?" The same boy from before asked. They were holding hands as they walked through the shrine grounds. The little girl, Sakura was standing nearby, talking to a Sable haired girl, with a small stuffed animal on her shoulder. Yukito kept getting the strange feeling that the stuffed animal on Sakura's shoulder, wasn't what it seemed.

"The goldfish catch sounds good to me. What do you want to do?"

"The baseball pitch. I wonder how hard I can pitch. I haven't played ball in eons." Touya said, looking at his younger sibling with a calculating look on his face... Like he was trying to figure something out. Whatever it was, it was bothering him.

"Are you ok, To-ya?" Yukito asked.

"Aa. I'm fine." he said, tearing his eyes away from his sister.

Yukito dismissed it, and let it go.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The sound of yelling could be heard, for some reason, Yukito found it very hard to keep his eyes open, or to at least appear to be slightly awake as he stood on the balcony. Touya was standing next to him. The director yelled 'action!' and started the camera.

Touya began to speak.

"I know what you are... your not..."

Yukito's legs buckled underneath him, and he fell over the side of the balcony.

Then there was a large blank in his memory.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Duo was thrown out of the little trip down someone else's memory lane. He blinked in surprise.

"What in the hell happened?" he asked, replacing the urn on the dresser, along with the card.

The two spectres on the bed looked at eachother.

"I wonder what he saw... probably not much. By the sounds of things, he was kicked out during one of my blackouts when Yue would appear. Before Sakura seperated us, and I died." Yukito said, staring at the braided boy.

"Probably... we'd better go... Sakura is probably wondering what were doing. We can always come back you know." Touya said, disappearing into nothingness.

Yukito stood up, and walked over to the unmoving boy. Who was staring at his hands in confusion.

He brushed one thin finger across Duo's face. And whispered "All will be known soon."

Then he disappeared after his lover.

Duo's head snapped up in surprise. He'd just heard the same voice from the eyes he'd been seeing through say. "All will be known soon." "All will be known soon.... what in the flipping hell is that supposed to mean?" Duo muttered. Shaking his head, he headed back downstairs.

"That was possibly the wierdest thing I have ever experienced in my life." He muttered. Looking at his watch he shrieked. He'd been up there for an hour. And then the smell of scorched stew infiltrated his nostrils.

"Trowa is going to kill me if his stew is wrecked!" He yelled, racing back into the kitchen.

Luckily, he was able to salvage most of it. He tossed the scorched pan in the sink, and dumped the stew into a big bowl, covered it and stuck it in the refridgerator for the time being. He decided to see what was in the big library downstairs. The previous owner had been an archaeologist by the name of Kinomoto Fujitaka. Duo stopped. "Kinomoto.....that's the last name of that little girl and her brother... that must mean, they lived here." Duo mused, reaching for the door that closed the basement stairs off from the rest of the house.

He suddenly heard a dull thud. Dismissing it as his imagination, he opened the door, and walked down the stairs. The basement was quite large. There was a desk, with an open book and a magnifying glass resting on top of it. Most of the books hadn't been touched for many years. There were many research books, but also there were copies of the classics. Like Moby Dick, Romeo and Juliet, a Diary, which had the name Sakura scrawled across it in neat kanji.,and a few others. There was a book on the far shelf that caught Duo's attention the most. 

It was red, and the Spine also had the name 'Sakura' written in English across the centre. He picked it up, and decided to look at it. It had the picture of a lion, wearing some sort of armour on his head. There was a small, star shaped lock and a leather strap binding the book together. He went to grab a bobby pin from his hair to pick the lock, but it snapped open on it's own. 

Opening the book with curiosity, he looked at the face down deck of cards, that had a strange symbol on the back of them. He picked up the first card, and read the name out loud. Well not really loud, more like a whisper. But it was enough to activate the card.

The room went dark, and a bright gold coloured, very intracate looking, circle appeared beneath his feet. Suddenly, wind began to blow around the room, mostly around Duo. The cards started to escape from the book. Only about half of them got out, before Duo snapped the lid on the book shut, and the rest swirled around him and started to glow. Then they shot out the window, which was cracked open.

Duo stared in shock. Then the book started to glow. Something yellow started to appear.

First a large bulbous head appeared, followed by a body, legs and tail. Duo recognized it from the flashback. Taking a large step back, he reached for his gun, which had been holstered in the waistband of his pants. It was gone.

"What the??" He yelped, discovering it's absence. Then he remembered, it was upstairs.

"What is going on here? Where are the cards?!!" The stuffed animal like creature that had just apppeared panicked.

"I dont know!!" Duo yelled.

"Well kid, I hope you believe in the strange, wierd, and supernatural. Cause your life just got a helluvalot more complicated." The stuffed animal said.

"That's just what I need. . .Complications." Duo muttered.

"Could you please do me a heart attack saving favour. Tell me what in the hell just happened here?" Duo asked.

"That card in your hand....did you happen to say it's name out loud?"

"Um... Yeah." Duo sheepishly stated.

"Oh boy... IS that the only card you have?"

"No . . . about half of them are still in the book."

"Phew. That's a relief. Sort of." it said, Sighing in relief.

"This is a good news/ bad news type scenario here kid. The good news is, you won't have to work as long to get these cards back. Bad news, before you start in with the excuses, IF you don't get those cards back, the earth will fall into chaos and destruction. Those cards are binding several sentient spirits. Powerful spirits, when left to thier own devices like to cause chaos and havoc. Since you sent them packing kid... you have to get them back." 

"Dude... hate to tell you this.... but earth is already hell. I'm a soldier in a war. I don't have time for stuff like that." Duo said. Trying to worm out of it. Not going to work.

"Aren't you a bit young for a soldier, kid..."

"Oh yeah... lemme rephrase that. Terrorist is a better fitting term."

"Really...."

" Dude, I can tell you every single type, model and workings of any explosive known to man kind. I can de-arm a bomb without any trouble. I can operate a mobile suit, and take out a bunch of ozzies in my sleep. I've destroyed space colonies the size of Alaska before. I'm a sharp shooter. I usually don't miss what I shoot at. And I'm a expert at subterfuge and infiltration. As well as in demolitions. If I wanted to, I could pass for lady Une, who is by far, the most psychotic woman I have ever met. And a high status Oz general, which is also our enemy."

The stuffed animal paled slightly. This kid wasn't joking.

'Sakura... wherever you are, were probably going to need your help.' he thought.

"So... you still don't have a choice. It's better not to complain and just do it. And by the way, my name isn't "Dude" It's Cerberus. Or Kero for short.

"And my name is Duo Maxwell. Not 'kid'." Duo snapped back.

"Touché." Kero said.

"Ok. If I have to get these cards back. How am I going to do this, exactly?" Duo asked.

"Could you move over by that bookshelf right there." Kero said, pointing at the bookshelf with the least books on it. 

Duo moved. Kero muttered something, and once again, the room went dark. A small, pink key on a chain appeared in front of Duo. The wind started to blow again, and the key grew a lot bigger.

"Take it!" Kero yelled. Duo scowled and yelled back."But! It's pink!!!" Pink had to be the colour he loathed most. It reminded him of the demon leech. Relena. Duo shuddered.

"Just take it!" Kero yelled exasperatedly.

Duo did what he was told, although albit reluctantly. After the wind died down, and the room returned to normal, Duo was still whimpering about the fact the staff was pink.

Kero rubbed his face. This was going to be a long haul.

Meanwhile, the collection of ghosts had collaborated in the background. They weren't visible. But you could almost hear the giggling coming from Yukito, and Touya's mocking of Duo."But, it's pink!!" He laughed.

Sakura looked at her brother, and his lover. Shaking her head in exasperation she said, "Were supposed to help him. Not mock him."

"Aww c'mon sis. It was funny." Touya said, trying not to snigger.

"Whatever."

going back to Duo and Kero....

"How am I supposed to use this thing?" Duo asked.

"It's the sealing staff. You use it to return the spirits of the cards, to thier confined forms, the cards. You have to make up an incantation."

"Oh."

"Uh...I'm hungry. I'm going to go get something to eat. You can come if you want, but if that door slams, hide."

"Alright. What do you have?"

"Not a lot. Heero did the shopping, so we have mostly health food. I think I have a package of twizzlers left. The only junkfood in the house. So it's gotta last for a while." duo said, leading the slightly disgruntled Guardian upstairs.

The door slammed, as they got halfway up the stairs. Wufei yelled,"Maxwell! Where are you?!"

"Crap! go upstairs, and hide in the room with the open door. It's the first room on the left!"

"Touya's old bedroom. ok." He said, flying past Duo and around the corner into the room.

Wufei came around the stairs, and spotted the braided teen trying to escape up the staircase.

"Where is the curry stew?"

"The big white bowl in the fridge. Can't miss it."

"Thank you." Wufei said, heading back towards the kitchen. Duo sighed in relief. He rushed upstairs.

That's when he noticed the huge bird outside his window.

"Kero..?"

"What?"

"Um, do one of these cards happen to be a huge bird? And does another one look like some sort of sprite with an bow and a quiver for a set of arrows."

"Why do you ask?"

"Look out the window, see the big bird out there that is roughly the size of a jumbo jet?!"

"Yep. It's a card. Oh great...a double header. It brought a friend. If I were you...I'd duck right about...now." Kero said, as an arrow came whizzing right through the window, straight at Duo's head. He barely missed getting nailed in the head by a very sharp, well aimed arrow.

Getting back up, he opened the window, sliding it open. He was about to jump when Kero yelled.

"What are you doing!?"

"What does it look like. I'm going to jump."

"Are you trying to commit suicide?"

"I've jumped from five stories and not even broke as much as my pinkie. Two stories, no problem." Duo said, jumping out the window. Kero shook his head and followed the slightly psychotic teenager, shaking his head.

"Great.....I'm going to guess, the bird is something that has to do with flying, and whatever shot the arrow at me is either the shot, or the arrow."

"Your fast. Use one of the other cards to capture them." Kero yelled.

Duo looked at him in exasperation. Going against his better judgement, the one that told him to get his gun and start shooting. He reached for the only card he had on him at the moment.

Grabbing the staff, which had reverted back to it's key form he yelled the first words that came to his mouth.

"Key of the star, I command thee under the contract, Release!"

'Jeez. Those two must think alike or something, because he uses almost the same incantation Sakura did.'

The key floated out in front of Duo, and turned into the staff. When Kero had called the staff back into existence, it's appearance had altered slightly, from when Sakura had been the card mistress.

Grabbing the key, with a look of determination on his face, Duo looked up, and started formulating a plan of attack.

Reaching into his coat, he pulled out a card.

"This should cut them down to size. Wood card! Release!" Duo yelled, throwing the card into the air, and striking it with the staff.

The cards true form erupted from the card, in a flash of light. It awaited it's command.

"Wood. Trap fly and arrow!" Duo yelled. The card turned away from Duo and spotted it's targets. Rushing towards them, it ensnared Fly in it's vines first. It jolted in a halt, and started to stuggle. 

Arrow looked around in confusion. Then it too found itself struggling admidst woods vines.

Duo looked at the cards, and sighed in relief.

"Arrow! Fly! Return to your forms confined!" He yelled, striking a spot in the air with the staff.

A rectangle shaped form of light appeared beneath the staff, and the three cards were sucked into thier card forms, but not before Woody gave Duo a wink, as she disappeared back into her card form. All three cards floated back to Duo's hands, and he sunk to the ground unconcious.

Kero, looked at Duo funny."He shouldn't have blacked out like that." He said, then he looked at the gards, grasped tightly in the teenagers hands.

"Oh...no." Kero gasped, when he noticed the colour of the cards in his hands. Red. Not pink.

"He's already started to change the cards...He hasn't even been through final judgement... Something is seriously wrong. Maybe I will have to conference with Yue. Something here is totally off kilter." Kero said. He froze and fell over in doll mode, as Heero came running out of the house.

"Duo!!" He gasped, running over to the teen.

"What in the hell?" Heero muttered, looking for the reason as to why the braided moron had passed out cold on the pavement. Hell, he didn 't even know Duo had even left the house.

His eyes carefully scanned Duo over. He noticed three cards tightly clutched in his hand, and some type of necklace in his other. Something told him to not question it. It was none of his buisiness. But another part of himself recognized this type if incident. The scene of a little girl passed out on the ground, clutching a set of cards. And several characters he couldn't clearly make out, buzzing around in worry.

He shook his head of the memory. For some reason . . . He didn't recognize where that had come from... it sure as hell didn't ring a bell from anywhere in his memory. And it was confusing.

__

'I can't let my emotions slip, just because I can't figure out where that came from. Emotions are a weakness. I can't be weak. It'll endanger the mission.'

Putting his stoic mask back, his thoughts strayed back to that memory._ 'Where did it come from...I've never seen that little girl before in my life.'_

He picked up his comerade, and carried him inside the house, making sure to advoid both Quatre and Wufei. Trowa wouldn't ask questions about why Duo was unconcious.

He put Duo on his not yet made bed. And noticed the Cremation urns, the picture and the card.

Since Duo was out cold, he let curiosity get the better of him. He walked over to the dresser.

The faces on the pictures... They seemed so familiar. But he couldn't place where he knew them from. It was confusing, and it was getting on his nerves. He needed to think. He jumped out Duo's opened window, and decided to go running.

Lately, the little things had been getting to him. Especially the braided pilot. He knew the least about him. He knew the political background, upbringing, ect... about the four other pilots. But the only thing he knew about Duo, was the fact he came from L2, his age, and who he'd been trained by. Other than the fact that the pilot was only serious when it came to being on missions. And sometimes annoyed the hell out of all of them.

Duo Maxwell, for as much of a loud mouthed, brash, crass, rude teenager he was, never revealed anything about his past. Not a thing in the year or so they'd known eachother. Heero had often found the teen crying in his sleep, whispering names. The most common ones were "Father Maxwell" "Sister Helen" and "Solo".

Duo was a mystery... that much was for sure.

And this is exactly what he was thinking about, as he counted the marching cadence he repeated everytime he ran. 

"1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4."

"I wonder why Duo never says anything about his past...even the other pilots told eachother about thier pasts...we even know that Wufei had been married. I don't know anything about Duo. He's the only person I know that can even get through to me anymore. Ugh. Damnit...k'so. He's just so confusing." He said, stopping at a park to catch his breath.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Back at the safe house.....

Quatre sat at the kitchen table. He had sensed the two of them come into the house and Heero leaving again. He shook his head. He'd seen Duo, and the flying stuffed animal. He'd resolved not to tell the other pilots. He'd leave that to Duo.

He also sensed the presence of several other entities. "Ghosts...I wonder what they're haunting this old place for?" Quatre asked, really to noone but himself.

"Knowing Trowa...he's already seen them." He added.

Returning to the cup of coffee he'd been drinking, his thoughts turned to the strange presence he couldn't identify. The one that seemed to be within Heero. Something that Heero obviously didn't know about.

"Maybe I should talk to Wufei. I think he also suspects something. He's been quite edgy around him lately... kind of like he knows something. Either that or my imagination is getting the better of me." He muttered, going back to his battle tactics planning.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

OK, I know y'all are going to want to kill me for ending the chapter there, but Hey, this is *counts # of pages on print preview* 15 pages according to Wp. I've worked on this since yesterday morning. So I hope you like it.And sorry if you got bored. I have a tendency to drag out things, and make chapters take forever to finish. The next chappie should be out next weekend. Uhm, i plan on updating "Untitled" within the next week or so...i've just had really bad writers block on it. I wanted to finish it for halloween, but that obviously didn't happen. So I'm just going to make a point of finishing it before Christmas. Cause I'm going to be buisy.

I hope you liked this.

P.s. I got the new Rascal Flatts CD. "Melt". I like this one as much as I liked the first one. ALOT. God knows, I'll probably have to buy a new one soon, because i'll wear this one out. #1 and #11 are my favourites.

Well gotta go.

ja!

Naoko

11/03/02

10:43:31am


	2. Chapter two

Heh, I have reviewers! See, People do like my stories!(This is directed at my friend Maria, who thinks I can't write for beans.)

Wufei: Stupid onna. Get on with the story already!

Naoko: Wufei... you have exactly three seconds to apologize for the stupid onna statement, or you will be eating that katana. Do I see _you _doing my Physics and Chem com homework? 

Wufei: I don't need to know it. I'm a gundam pilot, not some mindless computer slave.

Naoko: I really hate school. 

Duo: join the club.

Naoko:I've been in it forever. Dude, I founded it.

Duo: *Sweatdrops* Sure...

Naoko: We were supposed to see 8 mile yesterday. But we didn't get there on time. So, we went shopping. I bought another CD, and three stickers for my wall. Now that I'm done blabbing, I'll get on with the fic. Sound good??

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Disclaimer: I don't own Shin Kudosenki Gundam Wing. Never have, never will. Meaning if you sue... you get absolutely nada.

Also, I don't own Cardcaptor Sakura. That is the property of the wonderfully talented goddesses of CLAMP who created this wonderful series...(That Nelvana inevitably screwed up. I mean, they wrecked it. I could probably give you a whole list of the things that they've butchered. They even cut whole episodes from the series. Heaven forbid should we have anything that relates to homosexuality. Oh yeah here's the number one rule to become a Nelvana goon.

Do not, by _ANY_ circumstances leave anything that even remotely hints at japanese culture. Have any of you ever noticed the invisible assignments on the black board? Invisible chalk is your Friiiiiieeeeeennnnnnnddddddddddd!

Oh yeah, we can't forget to add in the valley girl attitudes, and the americanized phrases like "Whatever!" and "Awesome" 

*Sighs and shakes head* Like I said.... so much for what would've been a halfway decent anime if them nelvana retards hadn't gotten thier slimy clutches on it. Even "Sailor Moon" turned out better than that...even though they turned Michiru and Haruka into cousins instead of Lovers.(Which kind of sucked. I like the Manga better.) But they didn't change most of the attitudes. Which wasn't so bad. What sucks is they haven't shown StarS yet. And I wana see it! I have the manga. It's really cool! But...*sniffle* I can't really tell what the starlights are like, since they don't play a really huge role in it.

Ok so I'm getting off track here. 

Since I've bored you with about three pages of rambling, I'll get on with the fic. Sound good?

Wufei: Your damn right onna!

Naoko: Damnit! I thought I told you morons to gag him! God, it's so hard to find good help nowadays.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Three days after the first card capture, and Duo passing out . . .

The loud, annoying screech of the alarm clock, is what initally dug Duo from his ventures in dreamland. He robotically reached up, and tried to smack the thing.

"Stupid piece of shit." He muttered, rubbing the remnants of sleep from his eyes, so he could at least focus them straight enough to read the green numbers on the digital display.

"6:00! Fuck ! I'm late!" He yelped, now fully awake. Today was the pilots first day back in a school. Namely . . . going undercover, to find out something on a possible Oz spy, loitering around the school.

He looked over to the dresser. Kero was using the empty bottom drawer for his room.

Looking at the low table, he noticed a uniform lying on the table with a Post-it-note attatched to it. Duo recognized Heero's neatly scrawled handwriting.

"He's the only person I know, who can write exactly like those letters they always stick above elementary school black boards."

Quickly glancing at the note, he rolled his eyes, and reached for the uniform. 

"I wonder how long I was out for . . .? I remember capturing the cards, then kissing the pavement. Kero never warned me about sudden blackouts like that. But then, the little thing is sorta stingy about information." he muttered, slipping the white undershirt, then the blazer over his head.

"At least I don't have to do the whole jumpsuit thing. That gets old." He muttered, grabbing his tie off of the table, and looping it around the collar of his shirt.

He reached for his walkman and the pair of rollerblades that sat under his bed. Sighing, he pulled the headphones over his head, and pressed the play button.

He had an old rap cd in. Amazingly they still made copies of it.

He started singing to the words, as he walked from the room, and down the stairs. As he reached the landing, he got an impending sense of dread, that decided to settle in the pit of his stomach.

"Maybe it's because I know I'll get stuck doing an impossible project for biology or something." He muttered, lacing up the rollerblades. Snatching his bag from the rack, he headed out the door. The feeling didn't seem to want to leave.

He looked upwards. The sky was looking a little iffy. Like it wanted to storm. He looked at his watch. He had less than 15 minutes to get to class, if he actually wanted to be on time.

Picking up speed, he thought back to the picture of the girl, the one that they were supposed to monitor for any suspicious activity.

"She doesn't seem to be the type to be a teenage spy . . . but then again, I'm good at it too. And I'm only fifteen. And I don't look like it either. Trowa on the other hand, is a whole different story." He muttered, picking up speed as he raced down a hill.

The school building soon came into view. He looked at his watch.

"5 Minutes!! Crap!" He growled, skating even faster past a group of girls. Making them yelp about almost being run over.

He wrenched the door open, and skated into the main hall. Almost running over several people.

"Sorry!!!" He yelled back.

"Incoming!" He yelled, to warn the people down the hall. He dug a piece of paper from his pocket.

"Locker 5091....Right here." He said, skidding to a halt. He fumbled with the combination lock, got frustrated when it wouldn't open, and decided to resort to picking the lock with a bobby pin he had hidden in his hair. It finally opened. He stuffed his book bag in, and turned to put his tennishoes on. He was met with a tall, pink haired girl who looked at him in interest.

"Oi! Please... don't do that." Duo said, trying to calm down.

The girl laughed. "Gomen. I just need to get to my locker. You must be new. Either that or I just don't pay enough attention to things."

Duo laughed."No... I'm new. Duo Maxwell."

"Akizuki Nakuru. Hajimemashite Duo-san."

"If you don't mind... could you drop the -san. I don't like honorifics much. Plain old Duo is just fine by me."

"Well then Duo. It's nice meeting you. You might want to hurry, and get those tennishoes on, or you'll be tardy."

"Thanks." Duo said, yanking the rollerblades off of his feet. He jammed the tennishoes on, and grabbed a couple of things to write on, and with, then took off running for class.

"That's the card captor... he reminds me of Sakura already. Always late." She muttered, reaching for a text book, she laughed. The her expression hardened.

"I know that Une wierdo, is up to something, I just need to figure out what it is... and stop her, before I end up with two dead gundam pilots and a dead card guardian on my hands. God knows, Eriol will kill me for that."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Duo raced into class, with fifteen seconds to spare. Quatre looked at him puzzled from where he'd taken a seat in the back of the room. Heero was sitting in the front row. Trowa and Quatre were sitting directly behind him. Wufei was in the far corner seething, probably about some girl that managed to piss him off.

Duo took the only empty seat in the room. Which was between a row of jocks, and a row of skater boi's. The seat to the left of Heero's. A few of the girls were trying to flirt with Heero. Who in return, gave them his trademark Deathglare. Which sent them reeling back into thier seats. Duo struggled to force back a snigger. Also, a pang of jealousy struck whenever one of those girls leaned over to talk to the stoic teenager.

__

'What am I getting jealous over? It's not like he even remotely wants to talk to any of these girls. Or me for that matter. And even if I wanted to tell him . . . I probably wouldn't. I'm for one, too much of a chicken, and for two, he would probably beat the hell out of me. '

The teacher walked into the room, and the class followed the class representatives commands.

"Stand. Bow. Sit."

"Does anyone remember what today is?"

"We start working on our projects." A girl said from the back of the room.

"Hai."

"I'll pass out the rubric, for you to follow in a second. For now, I'll give you the requirements for the project."

There was an instanteneous groan from the entire class.

" This is a Drama class, get over it.We will be doing a play in front of the entire school. You may know this one. It's "Romeo and Juliet". I would've done "West side story" but, I did that one about three years ago. I will be choosing parts at random, by picking them from a hat.

"Why can't we do like "The Oddessy," or something like that?" A jock somewhere behind Duo asked.

Duo heard Wufei mutter,"Of all the girly romances..."

"Because I'm the teacher. I choose the topic. It could be worse... I could make y'all write essays. And I know the only reason that the majority of you are even in here, is because you don't feel like doing all that writing for Ms. Nagengast, or Mr.Jobe. I'm correct, am I not?"

Almost every student in that room nodded thier heads in agreement.

She grabbed a large cowboy hat off of her desk.

"Where'd you get that atrocity?" Another voice in the back sniggered.

"I got it when I went to Nashville, Tennessee. And it's not an atrocity for your information Kunikida-san. It's a hat." She said, slapping a detention slip on his desk.

He looked up, and sputtered.

"W-what's this for!"

"Opening your mouth when you should've kept it shut. Ever hear the saying, "Be seen and not heard"? Apply it." She said, giving him a sickeningly sweet smile.

"I expect to see you in here tommorow at lunch. No excuses." 

"And as for the rest of you, I'll call on you to draw parts. No exchanges."

She started down the list, and finally got to Duo.

He swallowed, and went to meet his doom. Walking to the front of the room, he looked for a possible exit. None in sight, unless you counted the open window.

He stuck his hand into the hat, and grabbed one from the bottom. 

__

'It's hopefully a background part, like an extra.'

Walking back to his seat, Trowa jabbed the teen with a finger in the back.

"What?"

"What part did you get?"

"Dunno. You?"

"Mercutio."

"Heero!"

The ice-cold teen whirled around, a look of indifference on his face.

"Nani?" he demanded coldly.

"Sheesh, I just wanted to know what part you got."

"Romeo."

"Ok."

Duo turned back around and picked the small slip of paper that Wufei was holding.

__

'Tybalt eh . . . Wufei, I'm going to tourture you so bad for this one.'

"Wufei... I hope you can play the part of a traitor well."

"Nani? What are you talking about?" The shenlong pilot asked, narrowing his eyes at the american teen.

"You heard me. Tybalt kills Mercutio, then returns to die by Romeo's sword."

Wufei scowled."Why don't you look at YOUR part!"

Duo looked down calculatingly at the small slip of paper in his hand.

"I don't have a problem with acting. I could act any part without a problem." Duo answered, albit too confidently.

Wufei snatched the paper from his hands, and opened it. His face took on a instanteneous shade of fire hydrant red, but it wasn't from anger. No, it was far from it.

Duo scowled at the chinese pilot."What's so funny?" 

He snatched the paper from him, and paled conciderably.

"NononononoNO There is Noooo way on this god given planet, that I am doing this. Nuh uh. Not going to happen lady. Not a chance." 

Any other time, he would've jumped at the chance to act. But... There were two little reasons that he blatantly refused to do so.

1) He was a guy first off. And it would be very degrading to act the part of a woman, no matter how effeminate he may look.

2)Playing the part of _Juliet_ meant, kissing _Romeo _. . . which just happened to be the suicidal, stoic wing pilot, who was currently, the object of Duo's affection.(though . . . Heero didn't know it, and Duo planned for things to stay that way, because he really wanted his head to stay safely attached to his shoulders with his neck, and not rolling across the floor.)

Ms. Foster met Duo's look of horror with a wry smirk.

"In Shakespear's time, boys acted both parts of men and women."

"Yeah, but did men kiss men?" Duo retorted, and continued to bang his head against his desk.

Heero, for someone who usually never outwardly showed any outward emotion, besides annoyance or anger, looked pretty shocked.

__

'I . . . Have to kiss Duo?' 

Ms. Foster looked up from the hat.

"I wouldn't know. I wasn't alive then. And no, you can not switch parts. What you picked is what you got. Your grades will be determined by participation, and your preformance. Which will be a month from Wednesday." She added, adjusting her glasses. Duo sighed in resignation.

__

'Things could be worse. You could be stuck kissing Wufei or Relena.' He shuddered at that particular thought.

Meanwhile, Wufei was still trying to control his mirth. Which was attracting attention to the usually solemn chinese teenager.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It was lunch. And Duo's stomach was definitely telling him that it was time to eat. Since he'd skipped breakfast. Not wanting to be bothered, he sat at a table by himself to contemplate just why He'd even bothered to walk or... rather skate into those doors. After a 1/2 hour of debating with Ms. Foster, over his part, she hadn't relented. Heero showed no outward irritation towards it, but then again, he never showed any emotion besides anger.

He heard the sounds of a wierd melody, being played by a combination of string instruments, and a vocal harmony. He looked over to see three girls, each holding an instrument, belting it into a set of microphones. He registered the fact that someone had dropped themselves into the seat next to him, but chose not to acknowledge thier presence. He was sucked into the song that the group of musicians was preforming.

__

"Two days past eighteen, he was waiting for a bus in his army greens,

sat down in a booth in a café there, gave his order to a girl with a bow in her hair.

He's a little shy so she gives him a smile, and he said "Would you mind sittin' down for a while,

and talkin' to me, I'm feeling a little low. She said "I'm off in an hour and I know where we can go."

So they went down and they sat on the pier, he said" I bet you got a boy friend but I don't care, I got no one to send a letter to. Would you mind If I sent one back here to you?"

I cried, never gonna hold the hand of another guy, too young for him they told her, waitin for the love of a travelin' soldier. Our love will never end, waitin' for the soldier to come back again, never more to be alone, when the letter says a soldier's comin home . . ."

Nakuru's voice snapped him from his little dreamland, that the song was creating.

"Duo!" She said. The startled teen whirled around.

"Oh... it's you. Hi Nakuru." 

"Hello to you too. I see you like the song."

"Uh huh. What are they playing?"

"It's an old Bluegrass tune called "Travelin' soldier" It was written back in the 1900's. Those girls up there are sisters. Well, the two blondes, Natalie, and Martie Maines are. Emily Robison is the brunette."

"What is that little instrument that sorta looks like a guitar?"

"It's called a mandolin. Emily is playing a dobro, and Martie is playing the mandolin. Natalie plays the fiddle."

"It looks like a violin." Duo remarked.

"Because it is. The only difference between the two, is the style they play it with. Ask your blonde friend about the difference. He could probably give you a sample of the two play styles." Nakuru answered.

"What are they called?"

"They named themselves after a popular country-western group, called "The Dixie Chicks." They usually play at a couple of the local bars on weekends, and occasionally for the student populous."

"Cool. I usually don't like this stuff, but this is actually pretty good."

"They'll be glad to hear it." Nakuru said, looking at Duo with a look of mischief gleaming in her brown eyes.

For some reason, Duo kept getting the nagging feeling that something about this girl wasn't quite... how should I put this... normal. He felt power eminating from her in waves.

__

'Yeah... she's definitely not normal... I wonder if she knows about her powers? I'd better ask Kero about her.'

Duo absently stared at the girl in front of him. And then something else made itself apparent to him.

__

'She's one of the possible spies! Damnit why didn't I recognize that sooner?!' He mentally kicked himself for that. Somehow he managed to keep a straight face throughout his whole mental kick in the head.

"You hungry?" Nakuru asked.

"Yeah I'm starving, but I'm broke. Besides, I don't trust the school food. They probably put rat poison in it or something, but I know from past experience, that it isn't digestible."

"Here. I have plenty." She said, handing him a wrapped pork bun from her overly large lunch bag. Duo stared at it in surprise.

__

'If she eats like that everyday, how in the heck can she stay that thin?' He pondered.

"If your wondering, yes I do eat like this on a constant basis."

__

'I know I eat a lot, but I couldn't stuff that much into my mouth in three days.'

"Thanks for the grub Nakuru-chan."

"No problem man. I always bring extra in case someone decides that the food isn't edible. I don't trust it either."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile at a nearby table....

Heero and the other three pilots were sitting at a table together. Quatre looked questioningly at Heero's lunch bag. 

"Heero... are you ok?.. your eating more than you normally do. You ate a rather large breakfast this morning."

"I'm fine. Just hungry." He monotonously answered, his look challenging the blonde empath to say anything more.

His gaze wandered over to where Duo was sitting, chatting animatedly with a pink haired teenager, with his mouth full.

Heero felt a pang of jealousy pull at his thoughts. He blocked them out.

__

'What am I jealous about? Duo is a pilot. An expendable one at that. Not to mention he's male. Get a hold of yourself Yuy. Emotions are not needed. They are worthless and they get in the way.'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Duo and Nakuru were walking from thier last class together. That's when Duo sensed the card.

Nakuru also sensed it, and stopped to pinpoint it's location. She looked out the window in the hallway. Snow and sleet were starting to fall heavily.

"Snow... isn't it a little early for snow?" Duo asked, looking outside with a questioning look on his face.

"It's October. We get snow in October."

"A little maybe... but Three inches in less than fifteen minutes, and freezing rain to go with it?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Heero tugged his jacket on a little tighter against his shoulders. The tempurature had dropped about ten degrees in the past five minutes. And walking home, had just become a less of a good idea. Partially because the wind had picked up. And he was getting drenched.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Uh... Nakuru? I kinda remembered I have to do something. See ya!" Duo yelled, running off in a hasty escape.

Nakuru laughed at the teenagers antics. "Duo... your in for a whole lot more trouble than what you think." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Great... Stupid cards, why did I agree to do this? Wait... I didn't. I was forced to." Duo grumbled, reaching for the half collected deck of cards hidden in the leg of his pants. He closed his eyes, and tried to find out where the cards were controlling the elements from.

"Aha! The roof!" He said, smiling in triumph. He ran towards the elevator, and punched in the key for the roof door.

As the elevator stopped, and the door opened, he was met with a blast of cold air, and wet snow in the face. He reeled backwards in surprise. He barely collected himself and ran out the elevator door in time before it shut.

Kero appeared from his bag. And was nearly blown away by the sheer force of the wind. Although... it wasn't Windy who was causing it. That particular card was already in Duo's possession.

Duo's yell could barely be heard over the whistling snow, sleet and wind.

"What card is causing this?!"

"Think! Which ones don't you have back yet?!" The stuffed animal like Card guardian yelled back, resorting to hiding in the bag, with just his head sticking out.

Duo mentally rattled off the list of possible cards in his head.

__

'The storm, the snow, the freeze. It could be any one of them... or it could be all three of them...'

"Kero! I think it's a combination of cards again." Duo yelled, his fingers starting to go numb from the biting force of the wind. His braid whipped into his face, and with a cold face, it stung.

"Good job. It took you long enough to figure it out, but you better figure out how to stop them! Before we get buried, and get hypothermia out here!" Kero yelled. Duo scowled.

"I don't see you helping any." He flatly remarked.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I'm thinking he needs a little assistance. What do you say Suppi?"

"Ditto... maybe we can hold off at least one of the cards long enough for him to pick off the other one." A small black winged cat drawled.

"And by the way you demonic butterfly. I'll tear you limb from limb if you call me that again."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Duo held the staff in his hand. 

"I've had enough of this! Firey! Melt the snow!" He yelled. spitting out a mouth full of snow. The card erupted, and made the air around them bearably warm, which also dried Duo's clothes nicely of the snow that stuck to them.

He moved over to the side to check Firey's progress. It was making good progress in clearing the snow away. It's true form appeared, and it didn't look all that pleased.

A sudden gust of wind almost knocked Duo off of his feet. And it started to sleet.

"You didn't tell me Snow could sleet! Or produce this much wind! These are things you find with the onset of a hurricane!"

"Because it CAN'T. Think, there should be another card."

"I got it! The storm!"

Suddenly Duo was drenched with an onslaught of rain. Scowling he yelled,"Firey! Attack The storm!"

The card shot upward, extinguishing the rain.

Duo raised the staff.

"Storm! Snow! Return to your forms confined!"

The cards returned to his hands, and he smiled briefly. He sank to his knees, and struggled to stay awake.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Why do I feel so tired?" Heero asked, feeling very zapped of energy.

"I can't be sick. . . I've never gotten sick before. . . but if I'm not sick. . . Why am I so. . . tired?" He muttered, walking into the house. He no more than got to the living room, when he collapsed in a heap in the hallway. Unconcious.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Duo! Duo, you can't fall asleep on me here! Wake up!" Kero yelled.

A pink haired figure walked from where she was standing in the shadows. 

"Duo! Oh no..." 

"Ruby... What?" Kero wondered, looking at the guardian in question. 

__

'How does she know Duo?' he wondered... the answer was obvious. She went to school with him, and probably came up here to stir up trouble.

"What are you doing here you insane twit?" Kero flatly asked.

"I believe that's none of your goddamned fucking buisiness Cerberus. Besides, I do have a job to do. and it's called figuring out why this is happening. Something your supposed to be doing. Me and Suppi have been working as spies. Got a problem with that stuffed animal?" She snidely returned, glaring at the named guardian.

"Wow. Your language is about as good as his."

"Well. When your forced to play spy for a bunch of mercenaries, and being forced to work for Oz, your language gets worse." She bitterly spat.

"Ouch." Kero grumbled. His gaze wandered down to the teenager laying face down.

Suddenly the click of a saftey being released on a gun penetrated the silence that had settled between the two guardians.

Nakuru whirled around.

"Nanashi?!" She exclaimed, recognizing the boy as one of those she'd worked with. 

"Good guess." The silencer returned. The tall pilot kept his gun trained on the two figures in front of him.

"Why? What?"

"Heero's suspicions were correct. You are an enemy spy. Good bye, Akizuki Nakuru." He muttered, pulling the trigger. He didn't expect the girl to erect a shield, so the bullet would bounce away. And then transform to her true form. Or walk up to him, and turn that gun, into a lump of worthless steel.

"Nanashi. You moron. I don't work for them. I'm a spy. I work for the same mercenaries you did." She said, giving the passive teen a glare.

"Ruby Moon?"

"Took you long enough to figure it out. Now what are you doing up here? Why did you follow me?" She asked, pinning the green eyed teenager against the wall he was standing next to.

"I was looking for Duo. I saw him come up here." 

"And I'm the Queen of England. Now why did you follow me?" She repeated, her gaze narrowing.

"Fine... I sensed some wierd aura, and I came to see what it was. Happy?"

"Yes I am.

"Wait... you know eachother??" Kero asked, sweatdropping.

"Hai. We both worked for the same mercenaries at one time. We bunked together. I always remember hearing two voices talking at night, but seeing only one person." Trowa said, his stature not easing any. He was still tensed for a fight.

"You can ease off. I do not wish to fight with you. If I did, you'd be dead by now." Ruby commented, noticing the pilots rigidity.

"I better get the braided wonder back to the safe house. Before Quatre and Wufei wonder what happened to us." He said, walking over to the smaller, thinner pilot, who lay on the ground.

"And by the way... watch Heero. If He starts to black out. I need to talk to you." Ruby called after the retreating pilot.

"Sí." He said, walking into the stairwell. Duo's unconcious form draped over his shoulder.

"That kid is strange." Kero said, scratching his head. And taking off after the green eyed, taciturn pilot.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back at the house....

Heero tossed and turned in his sleep. Quatre and Wufei had found him, and carried the sleeping teen into an adjacent room, and placed him on a cot.

Quatre bit his lip in worry." I wonder what's wrong with him. He never sleeps like this." 

"Maybe... I have a theory, but I can't tell you what it is."Wufei muttered 

He met Quatre's confused look."Family secret."

"Oh."

"Where are Maxwell and Barton?" the chinese teen asked, finally noticing thier absence.

"Still at the school I guess."

"For what?"

"I don't know. Trowa left me in the hallway, and said he wanted to check something out. I haven't heard from Duo all day. Niether Duo nor Heero have looked very good for the past couple of days. I'm beginning to wonder if they've caught some sort of bug."

"No. Something a lot more complicated than that I'm afraid." Wufei answered, a concerned gaze shifting to the fitfully sleeping Heero.

__

"Sakura. . . Iie. . .I failed. . . I"

Quatre looked at Heero like he'd grown an extra head.

Wufei's head shot up. Now he knew why Heero and Duo were acting so sickly.

"It can't be. No. . . there's no possible way. . ."

"What?"

"I'll be back. Watch him." Wufei curtly said. Walking out the door, without another word.

"Wait.. what?"

The sound of a motorcycle speeding out of a driveway was soon heard.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What.Are.You.Wearing?" Touya asked his younger sister, who waltzed out of her new bedroom. Wearing a very suggestive outfit, that consisted of a yellow low cut, high midriff top, that buttoned in the front. And a pair of low rise, short yellow shorts made from the same material, held up with a pair of black suspenders. And a pair of sneakers.

"Clothing... what does it look like, baka?" She glared, tossing her now very short, violet coloured hair behind her ears.

"What's with the colour change?" Yukito asked, giving the girl a confused look.

"Decided it was time for something different."

"Different would be to go blonde, and start acting like a supermodel. What you did, was go psycho. You look like some slut from hooters." Touya said. Yukito elbowed the dark haired man, and coughed.

"Coughcoughsistercomplexcoughcough"

"Yukito?"

"What?"

"Shut up." 

Sakura scowled, and punched her sibling in the stomach. He choked out in pain.

"I...didn't know.....she..could hit....that...ha..rd."

"I learn't from the best you know... having both Yue and Sayoran for sparring partners helps." She grinned.

"Geez... it's been three hundred years... and you both act like you did when I met you." Yukito said, shaking his head. "With the exception that your more vocal, and she's more violent."

"Yeah. That's nice... but theres something else we gotta think about here?"

"And that would be??"

"Undoing this spell or whatever it is. Or at least inhibit it somewhat."

"Damn... I almost forgot." Touya growled.

"How could you forget? We just talked about it before I went into the bathroom, and dyed my hair Dumbass." She deadpanned, giving him an exasperated/annoyed stare.

"Hey, at least now we have use of our powers back, so maybe we can sort this thing out." Yukito said, drumming his long fingers on the banister of the stairs.

"True. Let's get Eriol... and find these kids... they've got to be in school somewhere right?"

"Touya... they're at home.. It's 6:30." Sakura deadpanned.

"Oh... right. Hehe, being used to the whole not paying attention to the clock thing sucks after a while."

"Touya... you are worthless you know that?"

"But you still love me? Don'tcha sis?"

"That's disputable in it's own right." She retorted, rolling her eyes.

Eriol walked up the stairs, and stopped at the sight of the two siblings bickering.

"Ah... sibling rivalry.. Don't you love it?" eriol asked.

"Some things just never change... do they?"

"Nope."

"Let's leave them to dispute, and go do a little researching about our friends... shall we?" Yukito asked, looking at the bickering siblings with an amused look.

"Sounds good to me." Eriol said, as the two started yelling at eachother about Sakura's clothing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trowa looked down at the sleeping bundle of school uniform curled up against him, and frowned.

"I wonder... Why does he keep blacking out... It must have something to do with these cards. He was fine a week ago." Trowa muttered, shifting the smaller boy in his arms.

"Those cards are now drawing off of his energy. That's why he keeps blacking out like this." Kero piped up from behind the pilot.

"You... what do you want with Duo?" 

"He's my ward. It's my job to watch over him until he goes through the last judgement. And this is puzzling me just as much as it is you. I don't know why this is happening, because it's not supposed to."

"Your ward?"

"Do you wish for me to explain my situation?" Kero sighed.

The sound of a motorcycle skidding to a halt could be heard, as a racing suit, helmet clad Wufei came speeding up the road.

"I would appreciate that." Trowa answered, looking at the guardian, then to the boy running over to them, yanking his helmet off of his head.

A worried looking Wufei came up, slightly breathless.

"Wufei."

"I know why he's blacking out. Because Heero is too. I don't know if you'll believe me on this or not. Just be prepared for a shock."

"I don't think much can shock me after earlier." 

He recieved a blank look from the chinese pilot in response. "I'll tell you later."

"Hop on. Were going somewhere." Wufei said, repositioning his helmet.

"What about Duo?"

"Cerberus, Does Duo have the float card in his posession?" Wufei asked. Giving the guardian a look that clearly spelt trouble if he didn't answer.

"Yes... I think he does anyway. Look in his jacket. If he has it, it's going to be with the rest of them." 

"How..."

"I'll explain later. Were going to pay a friend of mine a visit. I ran into him a few months ago, you'll find him quite interesting Trowa, and he may even be able to provide a cure for our little dillema here. We can't exactly have those two blacking out while were on a mission, trying to demolish a base, or something."

"Damn it Duo! I hate how you manage to hide things." Wufei growled. 

"Aha! Found you!" He said, grabbing a pink card with an illustration on it.

"What is that thing going to do?" Trowa asked, his monotone matching the usual of Heero's.

"Watch. You might learn something." He said, reaching for something strapped to his back. Trowa soon realized it was a scabbard.

"I didn't know you had a broadsword?"

"It belonged to one of my ancestors. I normally only use it for katas, but this is a special case."

He said, positioning the card between two fingers, and the sword in the other, above his head.

"Float! Carry Duo!" He yelled, tossing the card outward away from himself, and struck it with the tip of the sword. Instead of slicing it to bits, like Trowa expected, the card disappeared into a ball of light that encased Duo within itself, then faded to a dull purplish glow.

"You can let go now Trowa." Wufei said, snapping the unibanged teen from his state of shock. He let go, and Duo stayed suspended in the air.

Kero intruded.

"Would you care for the long version, or the short version of the story?"

"Right now... I'll take the long version. And I'm dead sure Quatre will want to know of Duo's little escapades."

"The blonde?"

"Hai. He's an empath, with several other psychic abilities. He will find out sooner or later. And I'd rather be it sooner... We do not need a Zero System Quatre on our hands... remember the last time?" Wufei asked, looking at the taciturn pilot.

"Which episode... when Duo overfilled the washer with soap, and the entire laundry room was coated in soap film for three weeks, you over filled the dishwasher, and it flooded the kitchen, or when I left the water running in the upstairs bathroom tub, and we created a river styx on the third floor." Trowa asked, a small smile quirking the corner of his lips.

"You pick." Wufei said, eyeballing the other pilot mockingly. 

"Well anyway, let's get a move on. People are going to think it's wierd seeing a floating teen in a bubble, and two others who aren't really paying attention." 

"Ditto." 

"Let's get going... before Quatre manages to track me down and kill me for leaving him there."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And this is the end of chapter two. Hope you liked it.

OK now for the A/N's

Naoko: It took me three days to finish this! Ugh... exams suck, but I gotta keep up my GPA up, or No volleyball for me. I got the new Puddle of Mud Cd. The one that has the song "She F***in hates me" on it. I was listening to that while I typed.

Well anyway, the next chapter should be up in a week or two. And my writers block for my other story is gone, so I'm back in business.

And if your wondering, I got the whole "_Romeo and Juliet" _Idea from Starlife's story. Although, mine is going to take a whole different twist than that one. Trust me. I have read every chapter of that story about a zillion times. If you have no idea of who I'm even referring to, do yourself a favour. Go to my profile, and click on favourite stories. It's there. R&R that, and tell that person there to hurry up with the next chappie. Me and a zillion other readers out there are dying for the next chapter.

Duo: What are you singing?

Wufei: Really woman, what is that jibberish?

Naoko: It's not jibberish… well the chorus is. The song is called "Aserejé" It's by a spanish group called "Las Ketchup." It's a good song. Me and a group of friends sang it for our Spanish class. Both versions. Although, I'm better at singing the spanish version.

Well anyway please review! I won't update until I get at **_least_** ten reviews. So if you wana story. Review

Ja ne!

Naoko-chan.


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